21 not out

Last night's exercise was a good one. Plenty of crew turned out, perhaps it was just curiosity and wanting to meet Adrian Carey our new inspector. Anyway, it was good to see almost everyone there. It was a busy night too. The ILB had it's inspection then went to sea for a further exercise. The ALB had it's exercise and was put through the whole fire, flood and pestilence routine. Meanwhile back in the boathouse Steve was busy giving a masterclass on various aspects of navigation and chartwork. Good busy stuff.



Afterwards Adrian introduced himself to those who hadn't been afloat, gave a short de-brief and then suggested that we all retire to the Ship for a chance to reflect upon the evening's activities.



Of course he also wanted us to turn up in the pub so that we could have a chance to present Jon Deare, our Head Launcher and Winchman, with his badge for 20 years of service to the RNLI. In actual fact he has now done 21 years service and we hope that he will make it at least to 25 if not a little further. As a bit of background, Jon is at the moment our oldest serving crewmember and as such commands a great deal of respect amongst all of the crew. A man of relatively few words he is able to keep the crew in order whilst the boat is away with little more than an arch of an eyebrow or a couple of well chosen words. He also presents on an annual basis the crew 'Rosebowl'. This was purchased in memory of his father with the un-drunk remains of his estate and is presented to the crewmember who has that year made the greatest single contribution (this could be an act of selflessness, bravery, comedy or idiocy). Jon, thanks for all you do...it's great to have you around.



So that was it. A good evening with much achieved. The inspection continues today with Dave being subjected to scrutiny ashore in the boathouse. Good luck!